Another Drive Letter Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Craig H. Parker
  • Start date Start date
C

Craig H. Parker

I have read the various Drive Letter threads discussing the apparent change
in lettering and want to make sure I understand before doing anything I
might regret. I have Vista Home Premium which currently will not boot
without the DVD in the drive. When I go to "Repair" my Vista installation
on my C drive appears as the E drive. Am I correct that this is because
Vista sees the DVD as "C" and thus administratively renames my "C" to "E"?
Is it ok to select the "E" drive to repair and then hopefully everything
should be ok?

Thanks in advance.
 
Craig--

If you setup Vista from XP the drive letters remained the same. If you set
it up from a restart, they changed dictated by the bios. As has been said,
when you're on an XP boot on a double or multiboot, you see the drive
letters as before from XP. When you boot to Vista, you will see the
changes. You cannot change them from Vista on a multiboot as Darrell Gorter
[MSFT] re-enforced.

I don't know why your Vista boot will not boot without the DVD in the drive.
That's a problem to fix. You should be albe to do a startup repair, or a
system restore from the recovery environment (Win RE as these screenshots
show) or a system restore from the recovery environment. You could then try
the F8 environment if those don't work. All this is explained below:

Vista should just boot from the DVD. You may have to set the boot order so
that the DVD is first and some of the older bioses represent the DVD drive
as a CD drive in the bios setup.

Try these:

If you have a Vista DVD, you can try the Recovery link that allows you to
use Win RE's Startup Repair or if no joy, System Restore from there which
sometimes works when F8's Safe Mode>System Restore options (all 4 should be
tried) won't.

You can run Startup Repair by putting your Vista DVD in after the
language screen in setup. You can also run System Restore from the same
location.

You run the startup repair tool this way (and system restore from here is
also sometimes effective):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925810/en-us

How To Run Startup Repair In Vista Ultimate (Multiple Screenshots)
http://www.windowsvista.windowsreinstall.com/vistaultimate/repairstartup/index.htm

Note The computer must be configured to start from a CD or from a DVD. For
information about how to configure the computer to start from a CD or from a
DVD, see the information that came with the computer.
2. Restart the computer. To do this, click Start, click the arrow next to
the Lock button, and then click Restart.

This usually means that you enter bios setup by whatever key or keys
(sometimes there is more than one key that will do it for your model--go to
pc manufacturer site) and configure CD to be first in the boot order.

See for ref:
Access/Enter Motherboard BIOS
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

Note If you cannot restart the computer by using this method, use the power
button to turn off the computer. Then, turn the computer back on.

3. Set your language preference, and then click Next.

Note In most cases, the startup repair process starts automatically, and you
do not have the option to select it in the System Recovery Options menu.

4. Click Repair your computer.

5. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click the operating system
that you want to repair, and then click Next.

6. In the System Recovery Options menu, click Startup Repair to start the
repair process.

7. When the repair process is complete, click Finish.

Additional References for Startup Repair With Screenshots:

How to Use Startup Repair:

***Accessing Windows RE (Repair Environment):***

1) Insert Media into PC (the DVD you burned)

2) ***You will see on the Vista logo setup screen after lang. options in the
lower left corner, a link called "System Recovery Options."***

Screenshot: System Recovery Options (Lower Left Link)
http://blogs.itecn.net/photos/liuhui/images/2014/500x375.aspx

Screenshot: (Click first option "Startup Repair"
http://www.leedesmond.com/images/img_vista02ctp-installSysRecOpt2.bmp

How To Run Startup Repair In Vista Ultimate (Multiple Screenshots)
http://www.windowsvista.windowsreinstall.com/vistaultimate/repairstartup/index.htm

3) Select your OS for repair.

4) Its been my experience that you can see some causes of the crash from
theWin RE feature:

You'll have a choice there of using:

1) Startup Repair
2) System Restore
3) Complete PC Restore
___________________

You could also:

Try to F8 to the Windows Adv Options Menu>try 3 safe modes there (I don't
use WGA) and Last Known Good>then I go to Win RE in Vista. That gives you a
choice of Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking,and Safe Mode with Command
Prompt.

These methods are outlined in

A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP/and Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/

You will need this reference:

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449/en-us

The command to use for system restore at the safe mode cmd prompt is:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

The reason for doing this is one of these choices may work, when the other
doesn't. My experience is that people do not fully try F8 when they think
or have said they have. It is that they can almost always reach Windows
Advanced Options though.


Good luck,

CH
 
To be clear, remember ***if you did not set up from XP, then the Bios is the
entity that dictates your new changed drive letters. We had a thread on the
setup group that helps explain this and Darell Gorter from the Vista setup
team participated. Darrell wrote:

Actually I agree with what Chad and Rock's answers.
The only thing I have to add to them is that there are unattended options
that can be set when booting to the DVD that can assign drivers as well.


Using Computer Management\Disk Managment to change the drive letters is
only an option for drive letters other than the system and boot drives.
Both System drives and boot drives are not allowed drive letter changes in
Disk Management.

In Larry's case, his system drive is D and his boot drive is C
Since Larry cannot change his D drive, because is contains the boot files,
that option is not available in disk managment.
So he want so label his E drive as D, which also isn't an option system
that would first require a change the D which isn't allowed as per the
above statement.

In disk managment as in other places in Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows
Server 2003, Windows 2000, and NT Based Windows Versions:
System Drive is defined as the drive that contains the boot files.
Boot Drive is defined as the drive that contains the \Windows folder.


Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

____________

To answer your question precisely, it seems to me that you have installed a
dual boot. XP is on your original C:\drive and you directed the Vista
install to your oriringal "E" drive.

When you are on your XP boot, you have XP as C and Vista as E. You could
shortcut to the Vista desktop using E:\Users\Craig's Profile on
Vista\Desktop and you could shortcut if you are on your Vista boot by typing
D:\Documents and Settings\Craig's Profile\Desktop.

If you did a dual boot and didn't set up from C:\ where XP was originally
but booted from the Vista DVD on a restart, XP is going to be the C:\drive
when you are on it, and when you are on Vista XP is going to be the D:\Drive
and Vista is going to be the C:\drive and it will have the file path
C:\Users\Craig's Profile\

If you are ***on a dual boot or a multiboot, you cannot use Disk Management
reached easies by typing diskmgmt.msc into the run box to change the drive
letters.

I hope this is clear, and if not let me knoe. Also I think I have showed
you how to repair your Vista boot so that you do not have to put in a DVD to
boot to it as you indicated.

CH
 
I have read the various Drive Letter threads discussing the apparent
change in lettering and want to make sure I understand before doing
anything I might regret. I have Vista Home Premium which currently will
not boot without the DVD in the drive. When I go to "Repair" my Vista
installation on my C drive appears as the E drive. Am I correct that
this is because Vista sees the DVD as "C" and thus administratively
renames my "C" to "E"? Is it ok to select the "E" drive to repair and
then hopefully everything should be ok?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

When I updated my old 98 box to XP Home the "C" drive became the "E"
drive. Go figger.
 
Travis said:
When I updated my old 98 box to XP Home the "C" drive became the "E"
drive. Go figger.
Click to expand...

According to a Microsoft rep I talked to:
When starting a Vista install by booting from the DVD, Vista
will insist on labeling its partition as "C".
When starting a Vista install by opening the DVD from within
an existing OS, Vista will honor the existing hard drive letter
assignments.

Gary VanderMolen
 
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